Family Values Tour '98

As Lollapalooza faded away, a number of alternatives to the big summer package tours popped up to take its place. Chief among those was the Family Values Tour, an alt-metal blowout masterminded by the fellows in Korn. The 1998 tour was pretty much a who's who of the genre in the late '90s -- Korn, Limp Bizkit, Incubus, Rammstein, and Orgy all played on the tour, along with Ice Cube, whose old band, N.W.A, provided suburban kids (including the majority of the featured bands) with a gateway to hip-hop. Since the tour was a success, a souvenir disc featuring all the aforementioned bands was released in the spring of 1999. And a souvenir is exactly what Family Values Tour '98 is -- a little memento for fans who attended the tour, something to remind them of the good times they had in the amphitheater. On that level, it's fairly successful, since it does offer a taste of each group. Perhaps it's not enough to satisfy collectors, since the band with the most tracks -- that would be Korn, naturally -- only has four songs and everyone runs through predictable material. With the exception of Limp Bizkit, that is: two of their three songs here are not on their debut, including an awkward stumble through House of Pain's "Jump Around." It might not be that memorable, but their good intentions are noteworthy on a routine tour sampler like this. ~ Stephen Thomas Erlewine|